Monday 13 August 2012

Day 52: You


 Poetry speaks to each one of us individually. It shows us how we belong to the world. How everything is a part of us. 

Here's a poem a little more upfront than some on this aspect. Sometimes we need a direct inspirational pep-talk like this one to take heed of ourselves and the importance of our existence - after all, 'the earth has squeezed you in, found you space; any loss of face you feel is solely yours.' What a way to put it! But exactly right of course.


You - Dennis O'Driscoll

Be yourself: show your flyblown eyes
to the world, give no cause for concern,
wash the paunchy body whose means you
live within, suffer the illnesses
that are your prerogative alone - 

the prognosis refers to nobody but you;
you it is who gets up every morning
in your skin, you who chews your dinner
with your mercury-filled teeth, gaining
garlic breath or weight, you dreading,

you hoping, you regretting, you interloping.
The earth has squeezed you in, found you space;
any loss of face you feel is solely yours - 
you with the same old daily moods, debts,
intuitions, food fads, pet hates, Achilles' heels. 

You carry on as best you can the task of being,
whole-time, you; you in wake and you in dream,
at all hours, weekly, monthly, yearly, life,
full of yourself as a tallow candle is of fat,
wallowing in self-denial, self-esteem. 

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